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Large is the default, but unless you want to print everything at five feet (1.5m) wide, the medium setting also lets you make prints of any size (20x30" or 50x75cm is easy) and saves even more room on your computer and memory cards.

Trick: to fine-tune (make warmer or cooler) each setting individually, after selecting it in the menu, press OK (or click right) to get to the trim setting.

You may adjust it to your choice of any mild tint along the amber/blue and green/magenta axes. I usually shoot anyplace between A2 and A4, making things warmer (more amber).

The WB settings are:

Auto (A)

I use this all the time.

It makes its best guess for WB. It's usually very good.

Indoor tungsten can be too orange unless you have some bright tungsten light also in the image. If you do, it removes the orange and compensates completely. If not, the D3000 only partly compensates and you get a nice warm image instead.

Use this only for deliberate Arctic freezing effects, or under conventional tungsten light bulbs.

Fluorescent (glowing tube icon)

Used to make crappy fluorescent light look less crappy.

These settings rarely work; use the preset setting for better results.

Direct Sunlight (sun icon)

Use this in direct frontal sunlight.

Use other settings for shadows or indirect sunlight.

Flash (lightning bolt)

I never use this. It's almost the same as direct sun.

I'm told it's really for studio strobes, since the Auto mode compensates magically for flash if you use it on-camera.

The reason to use this is if you use a different trim value for your strobes than you do for sunlight.

Cloudy (cloud)

Warmer (more orange) than the sunlight position. I use this in shade, too.

Shade (house casting a shadow)

Very warm (orange). Use this for sunset shots and deep shade.

Preset manual (PRE)

You use this setting with a white or gray card to get perfect color matching.

I use this in bizarre artificial light that I wish no make look natural, or to get exact color with my studio strobes. An Expodisc makes this easier, but even without an Expodisc or white card I shoot off anything neutral, like a piece of paper, a napkin or a T shirt.

Any light weird enough to need this setting won't care about small inaccuracies in the neutral reference.

To set this using the menus:

1.) Ensure your card or other neutral object is in the light representative of the light on the subject.

2.) Select PRE via the menu button

3.) Press OK (or click to the right).

4.) Select Measure and click OK (or to the right). (The Use Photo option is a backwards bow to Canon's convoluted setting method. Canon Jihadists used to brag about this. It does the same thing, but requires twice as many steps. Ignore this option.)

5.) Select YES.

6.) Point your camera at the card or neutral colored thing and press the shutter.

Today I adjust the Auto ISO's minimum shutter speed as I change lenses and conditions. I no longer adjust ISO directly, as we did in the old days before 2004. This is a time-saving step towards the future, just as program exposure was a step ahead of aperture priority in the 1970s.

You can choose the highest ISO to which the Auto ISO will go (Max sensitivity). I let my D3000 go to ISO 800, since it looks fine at ISO 800 and any small amount of grain is better than a blurry photo. Try ISO 1,600: the D3000 is better at high ISOs than film ever was, and far better than any compact digital camera at these speeds.

You also may set the minimum shutter speed (Min Shutter Speed) below which the D3000 starts raising the ISO. Select the slowest shutter speed at which you'll get sharp images under your present shooting conditions.

I set 1/125 for people pictures, and 1/8 or 1/15 for shots of items that hold very still.

I wish this function was smart enough to recognize which lens I'm using and adjust accordingly, but it's not. For that, you want the LEICA M9.

This is short for Long Exposure Dark-Frame Subtraction Noise Reduction.

It doesn't reduce noise or grain. It will eliminate the occasional hot pixel, and correct purple fog around the edges of insanely long astronomical exposures.

OFF: Default. Leave it here.

ON: Don't use this. If you do, the D3000 will double the amount of time you have to wait around for time exposures of a second or longer. You people who need this know who you are, and even for you I suggest trying the D3000 with out NR first. it may save you a lot of time waiting around out in the cold.